This specification relates to encoding and decoding information.
An encoder is a device that converts information from a first representation into a second representation. Encoders can be included in many different systems and devices, including data communication devices, data storage devices, data compression devices, data encryption devices, and combinations of these and other devices. An encoder can be paired with a decoder that can reconstruct the information. The encoded and decoded information can be communicated in signals and/or stored on a data storage device.
Biological neurons, and other biological neural systems, can encode information and communicate using electrochemical signaling. For example, biological neural systems can encode information in action potentials of approximately equal amplitude. Biological neural systems include synapses that act as electrochemical transducers that convert electrochemical signals into electrical conductance changes. Even a single neuron may receive several thousand electrochemical signals as inputs on its branches (called “dendrites”). These inputs cause voltage changes across a cell membrane which are merged in a time-dependent manner. This merging of inputs follows passive (linear), active (non-linear), cable (decaying over time), and electro-chemical (diffusion) laws. Under certain circumstances, such inputs can be merged into a train of successive action potentials.